It Ends With Us actor and director Justin Baldoni was honored earlier this month with an award for advocating on behalf of women, but upon further review, the same organization has decided to strip him of his award within weeks of it being presented. The dishonor comes just days after actress Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against his production company that alleges a pattern of mistreatment and inappropriate behavior on set.
The organization in question is called Vital Voices, and it honors women from around the world for their work in such areas as health care, agriculture and civil rights. In addition, it also presents a Voices Of Solidarity Award to men who show “courage and compassion” in the cause of advocating for women. Baldoni was recently selected, given the anti-domestic violence themes of It Ends With Us, as well as advocacy outside the film, but after reading the allegations against him, as well as seeing some of the text messages from the crisis management firm his team hired, the organization has decided to strip him of the honor. You can read the statement below, per Deadline…
The Voices of Solidarity Award honors remarkable men who have shown courage and compassion in advocating on behalf of women and girls. On December 9, 2024, we recognized Justin Baldoni with this award. On Saturday, December 21, we learned through news reports about a lawsuit brought by Blake Lively against Mr. Baldoni, his publicists, and others that is disturbing and alleges abhorrent conduct. The communications among Mr. Baldoni and his publicists included in the lawsuit – and the PR effort they indicate – are, alone, contrary to the values of Vital Voices and the spirit of the Award. We have notified Mr. Baldoni that we have rescinded this award.
In a sweeping complaint that included numerous pieces of correspondence from Baldoni’s own management team, Lively and her lawyers accused Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, of sexual harassment and inappropriate on-set behavior. He allegedly made repeated comments about her physical appearance, pressured her into filming nude scenes that weren’t in the script, barged into her trailer while she undressed, graphically discussed pornography, bit her without consent during a kissing scene, asked how much she weighed and claimed he could communicate with her dead father. His co-producer Jamey Heath is also accused of showing videos of his naked wife giving birth and ignoring requests to leave her trailer while she was undressed and getting her makeup done.
At the time, all of this created an on-set rift that eventually led to intimacy coordinators being added to the production and various other changes the studio implemented in order to create a healthier work environment. During the press tour in the lead-up to the movie, however, fans started noticing something seemed off between the cast and the director. At first, most fans and social media users seemed to side with Lively, but later, the narrative shifted, as some fans felt he was focusing more on domestic violence awareness in his press interviews, while she seemed to be trying to strike a happier and lighter tone. We now know from this lawsuit that his team at least discussed a coordinator smear campaign against Lively, though his team claims the "astroturfing" strategy never happened.
Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, released a statement denying Lively's allegations and claiming she was the one who was difficult to work with on set. He also argued they only hired the crisis management firm because Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds have “unlimited resources” and were trying to smear him.
Expect to hear a lot more about this story over the next few months as it works its way through the legal system.
